- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 16,251
- Reaction score
- 11,190
- Location
- Not over the edge yet
- Gender
- Female
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Liberal
Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says - The New York Times
According to this report, a series of response options was developed in March, but to date no action has been authorized by the White House. Putin's press secretary claims Moscow has not been informed of this intelligence. It will be interesting to see how this situation is handled by the hawkish Pompeo and the conciliatory Trump.
Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says
The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.
American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.
The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
An operation to incentivize the killing of American and other NATO troops would be a significant and provocative escalation of what American and Afghan officials have said is Russian support for the Taliban, and it would be the first time the Russian spy unit was known to have orchestrated attacks on Western troops.
Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia’s so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations.
According to this report, a series of response options was developed in March, but to date no action has been authorized by the White House. Putin's press secretary claims Moscow has not been informed of this intelligence. It will be interesting to see how this situation is handled by the hawkish Pompeo and the conciliatory Trump.